First time renting newly renovated property - would appreciate review of application/qual requirements!

[Corbin Loesky]

Hello -

Over the past year, I've acquired two 2-family properties in the NY Hudson Valley area. They were both cash purchases that required some renovation work to get them up to good quality standards, much of which I've performed, some of which I've contracted (also have day job). We are ready to put the first unit on the market and others should follow in next 1-2 months. They are in a highly desired suburban school district, but also in a college area that could attract students. The area is a bit of a borderline edge of city area - not suburban, but not deep into the city where things get rougher and the schools deteriorate. While we hope to someday go for students to get the higher income they bring, we want to start by seeing if we can get a family in the upstairs unit of one 2-family - especially given the nicely renovated condition and unusual combination of central location linked to top suburban school district as a possible attractor.

Being new to this, I've spent the past few days reading a lot of info on this site to get educated on the rental process - very helpful.

I liked a common piece of advice regarding being clear about the rental qualification process, requirements, and fees up front, and frequently.

Based on that reading, I drafted the following as a cover page to the application itself. I would appreciate any feedback on whether this would be worth distributing with our applications, and any other ideas I might not be thinking about or things we should include. Am I being reasonable in handling of application fee if we have more than one applicant? Obviously we are probably going to be exceedingly cautious being new at this, and since I have not yet put a mortgage on the property, for better or worse, I'm under no financial pressure to fill it immediately to make payments - only lost opportunity cost!

I also recognize that SmartMove does not do an explicit eviction search. I am hoping that we will be able to rely on prior landlord feedback to make this call, but if we should strongly consider a separate service for this above and beyond SmartMove, I'm interested in any recommendations. I will search our county clerk's online records.

Thanks,

Corbin

AS FOLLOWS:

Thank you for your interest in our rental property!

We would like to ensure that you have a clear understanding of our rental process up front.

We will conduct a credit and background check and contact references as part of the application process.It is important to provide a clear and complete application to make this process as smooth as possible.

Please ensure you will meet the following qualification requirements before applying as there is a non-refundable application fee:

• Stable, verifiable gross income of at least 3 times the monthly rent
• Favorable credit history - no judgments to prior landlords
• Positive references from previous 3 landlords
• No eviction history
• Clean criminal background check – no felonies

All applications must be accompanied by a non-refundable application fee of $25 for the first adult and $15 for each additional resident over 18 years of age.This fee covers the cost of the credit and background checks.Again, we encourage you to apply only if you are confident in meeting the qualification requirements.

Applications will be processed in the order received, and the fee will only be charged upon processing.If the apartment is rented prior to your application being processed, we will return your application fee.

We use TransUnion SmartMove for our screening process.Upon receipt of a completed application with fee, we will send an invitation for you via e-mail to complete the application with SmartMove directly – there will be no additional cost for this beyond the application fee.This process helps protect the integrity of your personal information.